Volleyball Heads to SEC Country for Missouri Invite

MISSOURI TIGER INVITATIONAL
Utah vs. Rice
Friday, Sept. 2 | 1:30 p.m. CT | Hearnes Center
Utah at Missouri
Friday, Sept. 2 | 6:30 p.m. CT | Hearnes Center
Utah vs. Illinois State
Saturday, Sept. 3 | 4 p.m. CT | Hearnes Center

FIRST SERVE
The Utah Utes (2-1) head to Columbia, Mo., to participate in the Missouri Tiger Invitational, which will be held at the Hearnes Center this Friday and Saturday, Sept. 2-3.

Utah opens with a neutral contest against the Rice Owls (1-2) on Friday at 1:30 p.m. CT (12:30 p.m. MT) and will later face tournament host Missouri Tigers (3-0) at 6:30 p.m. CT (5:30 p.m. MT). The Utes will wrap-up tournament play on Saturday against the Illinois State Redbirds (1-2) at 4 p.m. CT (3 p.m. MT).

COVERING THE UTES
Friday's match against Missouri will be televised on SEC Network+ and live streamed on ESPN3. Utah fans will be able to view the game based on their cable company/subscription package via WatchESPN.com or the WatchESPN app.

Live stats will be available for all three matches with links found at www.UtahUtes.com or www.MUTigers.com.

ABOUT UTAH
The Utes are coming off a 2-1 performance at last week's Utah Classic in Salt Lake City. Utah picked up its season-opening win against Idaho State (25-17, 25-11, 25-22) on Friday, but then fell to Gonzaga in five sets (24-26, 24-26, 25-19, 27-25, 15-17) in Saturday's opening match. The Utes rebounded though, with a four-set win over Butler (25-21, 25-17, 21-25, 25-9) in the tournament finale.

Junior Adora Anae posted a pair of double-doubles over the weekend, which included a 20-kill and 18-dig performance Saturday evening against the Bulldogs. She tallied 19 kills and 24 digs earlier that day against Gonzaga.

Sophomore Berkeley Oblad led all players with a .481 hitting percentage on the weekend, while netting a new career-high with 14 kills against Gonzaga. She tied a career-high with seven total blocks against Gonzaga and finished the weekend with 12 total blocks.

Senior Tess Sutton led the way on the backrow for the Utes, netting 48 total digs, which included a 21-dig effort against Butler. She also managed to record three service aces on the weekend.

SCOUTING THE FIELD
• Rice - The Owls went 1-2 in Provo, Utah, last weekend. Rice opened the season with a loss to Cal Poly (21-25, 25-21, 22-25, 17-25) and just missed an upset bid against No. 13 BYU (20-25, 25-23, 26-24, 18-25, 8-15). The Owls salvaged the weekend with a victory over Utah Valley (25-18, 25-22, 25-17).

Chelsey Harris leads Rice with 38 kills (3.17/set), but Leah Mikesky is close behind with 37 kills (3.08). Madison McDaniel set-up the offense with a team-high 121 assists, while Lee Ann Cunningham totaled a team-best 54 digs. Portia Okafor and Grace Morgan lead the Owls at the net with 15 total blocks each.

The Owls are hitting .203 as a team and giving up just a .191 hitting percentage to opposing teams. They average 12.6 kills, 13.6 assists, 16.2 digs and 2.17 blocks per set on the year.

• Missouri - The Tigers swept its way to a 3-0 record at the Kennesaw State Invitational last weekend. Missouri downed KSU in five sets (22-25, 25-15, 22-25, 25-16, 15-10) and picked up a four-set win over Pittsburgh (22-25, 28-26, 25-23, 25-11). The Tigers closed out the tournament with a sweep over Liberty (27-25, 25-18, 25-17).

Missouri is led offensively by Melanie Crow's team-leading 39 kills (3.25) and Carly Kan's 37 kills (3.08) on the season. Mizzou runs a 6-2 offense and both primary setters, Courtney Eckenrode and Ali Kreklow, have tallied 61 assists each. Alexa Ethridge has a team-high 54 digs, while Alyssa Munlyn has tallied 17 total blocks to lead the Tigers at the net.

Missouri is hitting .222 as a team and giving up just .156 attacking percentage to opposing squads. The Tigers average 12.5 kills, 11.2 assists, 13.5 digs and 2.92 blocks per set.

• Illinois State - The Redbirds opened the 2016 campaign with back-to-back losses to Top-25 ranked teams, falling to No. 21 Loyola Marymount (18-25, 25-13, 18-25, 12-25) and No. 12 UCLA (9-25, 19-25, 17-25), but managed to sweep Niagara (25-10, 25-21, 25-11) for its first win of the season.

ISU has six players with 10-kills or more, but Lexi Varga leads all players with 20 kills (2.00/set) on the season. In ISU's 6-2 offense, Jacqueline Twing leads the team with 42 assists and Jordan Weatherless has totaled 34 assists on the year. Courtney Pence leads the backrow with 37 digs and Ali Line has totaled a team-best 12 total blocks for the Redbirds.

ISU is hitting .173 and opposing teams have tallied a .219 hitting percentage through the first three matches. The Redbirds average 9.8 kills, 9.0 assists, 14.0 digs and 1.80 blocks per set.

ALL-TIME SERIES
Utah is 5-0 all-time against former Western Athletic Conference foe Rice. The two teams will be meeting for the first time since 1996, when the Utes downed the Owls 3-1 in Houston. Utah is 2-0 when facing the Owls on a neutral court.

The Utes and Tigers will face each other for just the fourth time, with Utah leading the all-time series 2-1. Utah won the last meeting 3-1, which took place at the Utah Valley Invite in Orem, Utah, back in 2009. Utah's only loss to the Tigers came back in 2005 in Columbia, Mo.

Utah is 4-1 all-time when facing Illinois State, but the two squads have not met since the first round of the NCAA Tournament back in 1998. Utah won the match, 3-0, that was held in Lincoln, Neb. ISU's only win over Utah came back in 1990 in Normal, Ill.

UTAH IN PRESEASON TOURNAMENTS
Utah is 25-5 overall in preseason tournaments since 2013. Along with its 2-1 record this season, the Utes went 5-4 in three invitationals in 2015, and were a perfect 8-0 in 2014 and 10-0 in 2013.

The Utes are 8-1 in tournament matches after hosting the Utah Classic over the past three seasons.

UTAH PLAYER NOTABLES
• Junior Adora Anae racked up her 800th career kill this past weekend. She heads into this week's action with 838 kills in her three-year career - less than 200 shy from becoming the 17th player in school history with 1,000 kills.
• Anae is ranked among the nation's top-25 players in a pair of offensive statistical categories. She ranks 18th in the nation with 57 total kills and 24th in the nation with 4.75 kills/set. She ranks No. 1 among Pac-12 players in both of those categories.
• Sophomore Berkeley Oblad ranks 28th in the nation with a .481 hitting percentage. That is also good enough for sixth overall in the Pac-12.
• Freshman Bailey Choy posted a team-best 89 assists in her first three career matches for the Utes. The true freshman out of Honolulu tallied 43 assists last Saturday against Butler, becoming the first freshman setter to record 40 or more assists in a match since Kendall Cygan recorded 48 assists back on Sept. 8, 2012.
• Sophomore Jessie Openshaw and Anae both tallied four service aces each this past weekend. The Utes combined to collect 18 service aces through the first three matches, which leads the entire Pac-12.
• Senior Tess Sutton led the Utes with 21 digs in Utah's win over Butler this past Saturday. It was Sutton's fifth 20-dig effort of her career.
• Junior transfer Tawnee Luafalemana donned the Red& White for the first time of her career this past weekend and all she did was tally the second-most kills on the team (30), the second-best hitting percentage (.373) and second-most blocks (8.0).

UTES PICKED EIGHTH IN PAC-12 PRESEASON POLL
Utah was picked to finish eighth in the 2016 Pac-12 Volleyball Preseason Coaches Poll, the league office announced back on Aug. 17.

The Utes garnered 48 total points in the preseason poll, while Stanford was picked to finish first for a second-straight season after picking up nine of the league's 12 first-place votes. The Cardinal earned a total of 119 points to take the top spot.

UCLA earned a first-place nod and totaled 103 points to come in second overall in the preseason poll. Rounding out the top-five spots were Washington (one first-place vote, 99 points), Oregon (95 points) and USC (one first-place vote, 85 points). Arizona (72 points) and Colorado (50) came in just ahead of the Utes, while Washington State (46 points), California (27 points), Arizona State (26 points) and Oregon State (22 points) rounded out the preseason rankings.

ANAE NAMED TO PAC-12 PRESEASON POLL
Junior outside hitter/right side Adora Anae was one of 14 players named to the Preseason All-Pac-12 Volleyball Team. Anae, who was Utah's first player to be named to the preseason squad last season, was named to the Pac-12 First Team in 2015 after finishing the campaign with a school-record 501 kills.

UP NEXT
Utah rounds out its preseason tournament schedule with a trip to Portland, Ore., to compete in the Portland Pilot Invitational. The Utes will open against Texas State next Friday, Sept. 9 before taking on CSU-Bakersfield the following Saturday, Sept. 10. Utah wraps up play against host Portland on Saturday evening.

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Players Mentioned

Adora Anae

Bailey Choy

Kendall Cygan

Tawnee Luafalemana

Berkeley Oblad

Jessie Openshaw

Tess Sutton